Monday, October 22, 2007

Both higher and lower than I expected. Huh? Well, it should have been much higher, but for the last hour I've been involved in a stupid argument on the internet. After I read a particularly ignorant statement about diabetes (low blood sugar, in fact), I felt I had to correct the misinformation. Still confused?

Well, one way I'm different than a typical diabetic is that stress lowers my blood sugar. Yes, lowers. So I was expecting a low number (and it's probably still dropping). This isn't as great as you might, think, though. Getting upset, crying, getting angry, and general stress all cause me to have lows.

My theory, which also would explain why my diabetes is so weird and my hypoglycemia before I was diabetic, is that my liver doesn't dump sugar when it's supposed to. I've never recovered from hypoglycemia without eating, no matter how long I wait.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

My cat takes B12 injections. When we picked up the supplies, I noticed that they charged us $15 for 12 insulin syringes. I said, "Wow, I could get a whole box of 100 syringes for less than this!" Everyone in the room stared at me.

Finally the tech said, "uh, are you in the health care industry?" I said, "no, I have Type 1 diabetes." After a long pause where she looked like she wanted to say something, she said, "me, too."

These syringes came from J., though, since the needles on mine are too small for cats. ~$1 for 10.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

This morning I was awakened by a phone call, offering condolences. What? My best friend, Jennifer, is gone. She passed away some time in the last two days. Her family said that it looked like she had slipped and hit her head on the bathtub in her apartment.

She was beautiful, brilliant, vivacious, caring, perceptive, opinionated, and funny as hell. She was only 34 years old. I still can't believe she's gone.

Monday, October 01, 2007

I've long struggled with what kind of purse to carry. I like to have my diabetes supplies accessible (not in a case in another case), as well as all the other crap stuff I need to carry around. The first purse I got after becoming diabetic was this one:I really liked this bag, but it had a couple drawbacks. First, beige canvas + diabetic = !! (it's lighter than the picture). The second is that it's huge. Seriously huge. I looked at the measurements, but didn't quite get the full effect until I could see it. While I could fit all my stuff in it, I kept thinking I looked dorky carrying it around.

The second bag I got was this one:It's pretty similar to the first one, but the strap is in a different place and I didn't really like the look of the faux leather, so I decided to get leather next time:

I had it about three months before it looked like it'd been through a war. It turns out I'm really hard on bags and leather can't really take it.

At this point, I decided to branch out in a different direction, a more "fashionable" bag:When I got the bag, I found out that it's not really brown; it has tiny black and brown stripes, and it's really shiny. So it didn't go with the things I already had. Psst, could use some better pictures in this case. Once I got over my initial shock at the small size of the bag (especially compared to what I'd gotten used to), I pared down everything and stuffed it in there. It was cute, super cute, even. The problem? I started to learn all the advantages of the previous bag for a disabled person.

The previous bag has a flat surface on top, which I used quite often at the store, because stores are just not that great at accessibility (I'm looking at you, no-accessible-checkout TJ's) and I need the extra surface. It's also flat, so I could jam it against a flat surface and open it with one hand. I also appreciated the long strap, because it distributes the weight better when I wear it crosswise. The new bag falls off my shoulder because I don't really have the strength to keep it on that well. There's also my giant fear of having my purse stolen; with the last one I knew no one was getting that thing off me. I also didn't get backaches after carrying it for ten minutes. I didn't need to put it down on something and use both hands to open it. I remember it being a problem at restaurants when I was sitting at a two person table, but I've had to get used to putting my bag on the floor, and I finally got a hanging thing for my cane. With the prospect of having to go out more often, I need to have something sustainable for me, something that helps rather than makes things harder. I'm sure the new bag is a great bag for everyone but me, but I think I'm going to have to go back to the old one. Fashion loses.

The question is, which one to get. The beige canvas performed the best for me, although it was hard to keep clean. The faux leather had a different weight distribution. The leather didn't last very long with me using it. This is the coat I have now, although it's lighter and brighter than the picture, not really an olive or "fatigue." Decisions, decisions.